660 Fall 2009

Course descriptionThis course introduces basic concepts, findings, issues and research methods in sociolinguistics as they relate to second and foreign language issues. Two questions we will revisit throughout the course are, 1) What is the role of regional and social variation in the teaching, learning, and use of second and foreign languages? and 2) How does our understanding of the social meanings produced in language inform language teaching, learning, and use? To begin to answer these questions, we will engage in extensive reading and discussions, class presentations, and two papers. Course readings and lectures will examine topics that are relevant to learning/teaching, such as the role of language policy in teaching and learning of languages, the relationship between identity and language learning, the process of language socialization, the role of power and privilege in language teaching/learning/use, the nature of linguistic variation in first/second language varieties, and the politics of teaching English as an international language. Through our examination of these topics, we will problematize key concepts used in much SLA research, including target language , standard language , native speaker , motivation , and language proficiency , and we will examine how these ideas relate to more contemporary concepts such as linguistic and social identity , competent language user , investment , appropriation , localization , and legitimacy .

Required Text:1. Course Packet. Available at Professional Image, 2633 S. King St., 973-6599 (*note that many articles are posted to the UH portal site if available electronically, marked with @)

Schedule of readings and assignmentsnote: electronic copies on UH Portal are marked by @

Delpit, Lisa. 2003. No kinda sense. In L. Delpit & J. Dowdy (eds.) The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom (pp. 49-61). NY: The New Press.
Do You Speak American? & American Tongues (excerpts) - videos in class

Tomlinson, B. 2005. English as a foreign language: Matching procedures to the context of learning. In E. Hinkel (ed) Handbook of resesarch in second language teaching and learning (pp. 137-153).

@ Lam, E., 2000. Second language literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing on the internet. TESOL Quarterly, 34 (3) : 457-483.

@Ohara, Y. (forthcoming) Identity theft or revealing one's true self? The media and construction of identity in Japanese as a foreign language. In C. Higgins (ed.) Negotiating the self in another language: Identity formation in a globalizing world. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

@Higgins, C. (forthcoming). Western women's resistance to identity slippage in Tanzania. In C. Higgins (ed.) Negotiating the self in a second language: Identity formation in a globalizing world. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.